Self-guided walking tours in Paris

Paris is one of the most walkable capitals in the world. The city center is compact: you can cross from the Marais to the Eiffel Tower on foot in a little over an hour. Most of the famous sights sit within a 5-kilometer radius. The metro fills the gaps when your legs are done, with stations every 500 meters or so in the center. The main obstacle is cobblestones, not distance.

April through June and September through October are the sweet spots. The weather is mild, the days are long, and the crowds are thinner than in July and August. May and September are ideal. August is hot and many neighborhood shops and restaurants close for the annual holiday. November through February are cold and gray but hotel prices drop and the city feels more like it belongs to Parisians.

Buy a Navigo Easy card at any metro station for €2, then load single tickets or a day pass onto it. A single metro-train-RER ticket costs €2.55 and works on all lines within Paris. A Navigo Day Pass costs €12.30 and gives unlimited rides for one calendar day. Tap the card on the purple validator at the gate. The metro runs from about 5:30 AM to 1:15 AM, with later service on Fridays and Saturdays. Lines are numbered and color-coded; direction signs list the terminus station.

A comfortable day with one or two paid attractions, a boulangerie lunch, a bistro dinner, and a few metro rides runs €80 to €150 per person. Budget travelers can do it for under €60 by skipping paid entries, eating market picnics, and walking everywhere. The biggest variable is attractions: the Eiffel Tower summit costs €36.70, while walking under it costs nothing. Supermarket wine and cheese on the Champ de Mars is one of the best dinners in the city for €12.

Paris is a safe city for the vast majority of visitors. The most common issues are pickpocketing around major tourist sites and on crowded metro lines. Keep your phone and wallet in a front pocket or zipped bag. Watch for the petition scam around Sacré-Cœur and the bracelet scam on the Champs-Élysées: a firm non, merci and walking away is all it takes. At night, the center is well lit and busy. The metro is safe; avoid empty cars late at night and stick to ones with other passengers.

You can get by in Paris with English, especially in tourist areas. But French etiquette matters more than fluency. Always begin every interaction with bonjour. If you walk into a shop and launch into English without greeting the person behind the counter, you will get cold service. Bonjour, then parlez-vous anglais? changes the whole exchange. Learn those two phrases and merci, au revoir, and you will be treated well.

Service is included in the price by law in French restaurants and cafés. The menu or bill will say service compris. Rounding up to the nearest euro or leaving a euro or two for good service is appreciated but not expected. In a fine-dining restaurant, leaving 5 to 10 percent is a generous gesture. Tip taxi drivers a euro or two. No tip is expected at bars when you order at the counter.